Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Apologizes for McDonald Shooting, Protesting Persists

Hundreds of protesters took to Chicago’s streets Wednesday, blocking traffic and reportedly attempting to storm business buildings while calling for Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s resignation.

The release last month of a video showing the 2014 killing of a black teenager by a white police officer has set off weeks of largely peaceful protests and led to the dismissal of the city’s police chief.

Emanuel has called a special City Council meeting Wednesday morning to deliver a message on the police department.

While a police review board found the officers’ actions justified, Emanuel said Monday that he didn’t see how the treatment of Coleman “could possibly be acceptable”.

The apology, however, was not enough to quell anger on the streets, with protesters converging on the city’s downtown to demand Emanuel’s resignation, as well as more accountability and transparency.

But as long as Chicago remains one of the most segregated cities in America, it will be next to impossible to eliminate racial bias within the police department.

CHICAGO A federal judge said Wednesday he would not order the release of videos that captured a Chicago police officer fatally shooting 17-year-old Cedrick Chatman as he fled officers in the South Shore neighborhood in January 2013.

Police reports from the McDonald shooting included officer accounts that differed dramatically from the video. Municipal corruption in Chicago didn’t begin with Rahm Emanuel and it won’t end with him.

The Independent Police Review Authority, which investigates police shootings, cleared the officer of wrongdoing.

It contributed to Garry McCarthy losing his job as Chicago’s police superintendent and spurred calls for Emanuel to resign.

“We have read the studies and articles on racial profiling, the lack of diversity in our police ranks across the country, and the disproportionate levels of enforcement towards people of color”, he said.

One protester called for police to release all videos in controversial cases in which citizens have died in incidents with police officers. Evans is an African-American officer who’s been with the Chicago police 29 years.

Protesters were demonstrating against police misconduct and the city’s response at City Hall on Wednesday. Many protesters believe Emanuel may have helped cover up the shooting of McDonald, and would not have been reelected in April 2015 if the video of McDonald’s shooting had been made public.

“I own it”, he said”.

He says the city and the police, in particular, “have a responsibility to win back the trust”. Officers who saw Van Dyke shoot McDonald portrayed the teen as far more menacing than he appeared on screen. Shortly after arriving on the scene, Police Officer Jason Van Dyke fired 16 times within seconds of exiting his vehicle.

“I asked them: ‘Tell me the one thing I need to know.’ And rather than tell me something, one young man asked me a simple question that gets to the core of what we’re talking about”, he said.

The proposal would allow a recall election to be initiated by a petition with signatures totaling at least 15 percent of the total votes cast in the previous mayoral election, with at least 50 signatures from each Chicago ward.